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Research and Data deep dive

DefeatBeta API Review | Free Stock Data That Skips the Yahoo Headaches

DefeatBeta API logoDefeatBeta APIdefeat-beta/defeatbeta-api

DefeatBeta API is a free, open-source Python library that hands you stock prices, financial statements, earnings call transcripts and valuation ratios without scraping Yahoo Finance. It also ships an MCP server and a Claude skill, so an AI assistant can pull the numbers for you. The catch: the data lives in a Hugging Face dataset the maintainers refresh on their own schedule, so it is a research tool, not a live trading feed.

Think of it as a public library of company financials that someone photocopied in bulk, so you can read whatever you want without waiting in line at Yahoo's front desk.

FullStack Alpha Editorial Team

Reviewed by Jay Rocco, Chief Editor

What Is DefeatBeta API and What Does It Actually Do?

GitHub page for DefeatBeta API (defeat-beta/defeatbeta-api)
defeat-beta/defeatbeta-api on GitHub · 2026

Anyone who has built a stock screener in Python knows the ritual. You use yfinance, the popular free library that pulls Yahoo Finance data, and one morning it breaks or starts throttling you. Throttling, or rate limiting, means the website deliberately slows or blocks you for asking too often. Free data with a trapdoor under it is not a foundation for a system.

DefeatBeta API takes a different route. Instead of scraping Yahoo page by page, the maintainers package the data into a dataset hosted on Hugging Face, a popular site for sharing AI models and datasets. Your code then queries that dataset through DuckDB, a small, fast database engine that runs inside your program. The README says this avoids scraping and rate limits, and claims sub-second queries with full SQL support (SQL is the standard language for asking a database questions).

What can you pull? Daily price history going back years, quarterly income statements with trailing twelve-month figures, valuation ratios like P/E, P/S, P/B and PEG, and return metrics such as ROE, ROIC and WACC. It also covers SEC filings, stock news, revenue split by business segment and by geography, and full earnings call transcripts broken into paragraphs with speaker names. There is even an automated DCF (a discounted cash flow model, a standard way of estimating what a company is worth from its future cash) exported as an editable Excel file.

The AI angle is where it gets interesting for our readers. The repo includes an MCP server (a plug that lets an AI assistant like Claude read data or use an app) and a Skills package that the README says works with Claude.ai and Manus. The MCP docs name Claude Desktop, Codex, Manus and a few other agent apps. In practice, you can ask your assistant to compare two companies' margins and it fetches the figures instead of guessing them from memory.

Community Score

67 / 100

How we score
Adoption · How many people starred it
17.4 / 30
Maintenance · How recently the code was updated
25 / 25
Community sentiment · What traders say on Reddit and Hacker News
8 / 20
Builder activity · How many people built their own copy
6.3 / 15
License clarity · Whether you are clearly allowed to use it
10 / 10

GitHub data checked 2026. Community read: not enough independent discussion yet.

Stars
791
Forks (people who built on it)
62
Written in
Python
License
Apache-2.0
Last update
2026-10-26
Markets
Stocks
Skill level
Beginner

Works with

Claude
View defeat-beta/defeatbeta-api on GitHub ↗

Is DefeatBeta API Right for You?

Good fit if you are

  • Beginners learning Python for investing who want clean company data without paying for a data subscription
  • Fundamental and value investors who want income statements, ratios and DCF models in a spreadsheet
  • People who read earnings call transcripts and want them searchable, by quarter and speaker
  • Claude or Codex users who want their AI assistant answering questions from real financial data, not memory

Skip it if you are

  • You need live, to-the-second prices for day trading. This is a research dataset updated on the maintainers' schedule, not a streaming feed
  • Your business depends on audited data with a support contract. A free community dataset has no service promise behind it

The jargon, in plain English

Repo
A project's folder of code on GitHub.
yfinance
A popular free Python tool that pulls Yahoo Finance data. It works, until Yahoo changes something.
Rate limit
A cap a website puts on how often you can ask it for data before it slows or blocks you.
Hugging Face dataset
A large data file hosted on Hugging Face, a public site where people share AI models and data.
DuckDB
A small, fast database engine that runs inside your own program, no server needed.
TTM
Trailing twelve months: the last four quarters added together.
DCF
Discounted cash flow, a way to estimate a company's value from the cash it is expected to earn in the future.
MCP server
A plug that lets an AI assistant like Claude read data or use an app.

What Do Traders Say About DefeatBeta API?

Outside chatter is thin. We found two Reddit posts, on r/mltraders and r/algoprojects, and both came from the project's own author introducing it. So the praise you will read online, free data, transcripts, segment revenue, no rate limits, is the builder's pitch, not a crowd verdict.

That does not make it bad. It makes it unproven in public. The GitHub signals are healthy: roughly 800 stars, a commit history in the hundreds, and code pushed within the last week when we checked. Our read is that the project is moving fast while the community conversation has not caught up.

What they like

  • Free fundamentals, transcripts and segment revenue in one package (author claim)
  • Avoids scraping and rate limits by serving data from Hugging Face (author claim)
  • Very active development

What they complain about

  • Only the author's own posts turned up, so no independent reviews yet
  • Data comes from a dataset refreshed roughly weekly, not a live feed

How Do You Set Up DefeatBeta API Safely?

Plain steps, fake money first. Keep your keys in a private settings file, never pasted into the code.
  1. 01Install Python 3.11 or newerThe library needs a recent Python. Mac, Linux and Windows all work, and the README says Windows runs natively from version 0.0.60 onward.
  2. 02Install the packageRun pip install defeatbeta-api in a terminal. That one command pulls in everything it needs.
  3. 03Try one tickerIn Python, import Ticker from defeatbeta_api.data.ticker and create Ticker('TSLA'). Ask for price history or the quarterly income statement and check the output looks sane.
  4. 04Spot-check the numbersCompare a few figures with the company's actual SEC filing before trusting them. Missing values show up as an asterisk, and odd outliers can slip through any free dataset.
  5. 05Connect your AI assistant (optional)Follow the mcp folder's instructions to have Claude Desktop or Codex install the MCP server with uvx. If Hugging Face is blocked on your network, the docs show how to set a proxy.
  6. 06Keep any keys out of your codeThe core data needs no key. If you add LLM features or a proxy, put those settings in environment variables or a .env file, not in a notebook you might share.

What Do You Need to Run DefeatBeta API?

  • Python 3.11 or newer

    The library is a Python package. Any recent laptop handles it.

  • Internet access to Hugging Face

    All the data sits in a Hugging Face dataset. If your network blocks it, you need a proxy.

    Hugging Face

  • An MCP-capable AI app (optional)

    Only if you want an assistant to query the data for you in plain English.

    Claude DesktopCodexManus

  • A spreadsheet app (optional)

    The automated DCF exports to an editable Excel file.

    Microsoft Excel

What Are the Risks of Using DefeatBeta API?

  • Not a live feed

    The data is served from a dataset the maintainers refresh periodically, roughly weekly by community accounts. Fine for research and screening, wrong for timing intraday trades.

  • Data quality is on you

    Our look at the README sample showed some missing fields and at least one figure that looked out of line with nearby quarters. Verify anything important against the company's filings.

  • Unproven in public

    Every online post we found came from the author. Until independent users report their experience, treat the reliability claims as promises, not facts.

  • Built on someone else's data

    The project describes itself as a Yahoo Finance alternative and the dataset is named after Yahoo Finance data. If the upstream source changes, the dataset could lag or change too.

  • AI can still misread numbers

    An MCP connection gives your assistant real data, but the AI can still pull the wrong quarter or mix up units. Read the figures it quotes.

Keep reading across FullStack Alpha

Not ready to run code yourself? Our hands-on AI stock tool reviews on AIStockPickerApp.com score finished products on five pillars, the AI stock tools directory at AIStockPickerApps.com sorts 200+ tools by the job they do, and AIStockTradingBots.com walks through broker APIs, bot setup and backtesting step by step. Or head back to the Trading Workflows home page to match tools to your own routine and budget.

What Are the Best DefeatBeta API Alternatives?

Should You Use DefeatBeta API? Our Verdict

DefeatBeta API is a smart answer to a real annoyance. Free fundamentals, transcripts and segment revenue, queryable in SQL, with no scraper to babysit and an MCP server so Claude can do the lookups. For a beginner building a research habit, that is a lot of value at a price of zero.

Just know what it is. It is a research library, not a trading feed, and its reputation rests mostly on its author's word so far. Use DefeatBeta API to screen companies, read transcripts and build valuation models, then verify the numbers that drive real decisions. Systems beat hacks, and a good system always checks its inputs.

Community Score

67

out of 100 · method

More DefeatBeta API Questions, Answered

Is DefeatBeta API free?

Yes. It is open source under the Apache-2.0 license, and the data is served from a public Hugging Face dataset. The README mentions no paid tier.

Is DefeatBeta a good yfinance alternative?

For research, it can be. It covers prices, statements, ratios and transcripts without scraping Yahoo pages, so you avoid the rate limits that frustrate yfinance users. It is not built for live intraday prices.

How often is DefeatBeta data updated?

The README does not state a schedule. Community posts describe the Hugging Face dataset as updated about weekly, so treat it as research data rather than real-time quotes.

Can I use DefeatBeta API with Claude?

Yes. The repo includes an MCP server and a Skills package, and its docs name Claude Desktop and Claude.ai, along with Codex and Manus. Once connected, you can ask for prices, metrics or comparisons in plain English.

Does DefeatBeta API have earnings call transcripts?

Yes. It lists which quarters are available for a company and returns the transcript split into paragraphs with speaker names, which makes it easy to search what management said.

Sources we checked

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